


Once You Are Real

by lambicpentametre



Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Angst, Cambot Needs More Love, End of the World, Everyone Is Dead and Dying, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Referenced Mike Nelson/Joel Robinson, The Velveteen Rabbit, the eventual (implied heat) death of the planet, this does not have a very happy ending just fyi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:33:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29293719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lambicpentametre/pseuds/lambicpentametre
Summary: Cambot was designed with one purpose in mind, one singular function: to observe.It's Earth's final day, and the 'bots go home one last time.Cambot doesn't stay awake with Tom and Crow. This is what he sees instead.
Relationships: Cambot & Joel Robinson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4
Collections: MSThink Tank 3000





	Once You Are Real

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [At World's End](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29292249) by [remylebae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/remylebae/pseuds/remylebae). 



> I highly recommend you read At World's End prior to reading this fic. This takes place concurrently with the events of that fic (because in remylebae's words, we are a queer think-tank of MST3K fic), and I wrote it in response to fill in what's going through Cambot's mind.

Cambot was designed with one purpose in mind, one singular function: to observe. When he was still young, before his memory banks were cluttered with files that had been overwritten with newer files, he relished in the observing. It was fun watching Joel and Mike and his siblings, Crow and Tom and Gypsy, and even to an extent the Mads. 

But one by one, they all started leaving until it was just Cambot and Crow and Tom left.

There were many things that Cambot had seen in his long, long life. He’d seen Halley’s Comet every time it came by until the clouds ate the night sky. (He’d seen the slow, steady growth of the clouds and dust and smog that eventually ate the night sky.) He only felt a little sad that he could no longer see the stars he was born amongst, but it was okay. He still had a lot of memories of living in space, and he liked to watch them right before he went to sleep at night to remember what the stars looked like. 

By mutual consensus, Cambot and his brothers were going home. No matter how long it had been, they all remembered the way home. Cambot had gotten separated from Crow and Tom in a dust storm a few centuries ago, but he knew if he just made it back to the latitude and longitude marked in his memory banks as HOME, he’d find them there again. 

Cambot remembered Joel liked to use the phrase, “I knew it deep in my bones.” He didn’t have bones, but Cambot thought it was more of a symbolic thing. Deep in their bones, the little ‘bots knew Something was coming. They were slowing down, and it was getting harder for their visual processors to look around. 

Of course, that could’ve been attributed to the loss of parts and pieces over the years. None of them could remember exactly how Servo damaged his hover skirt, or why Cambot himself could no longer fly. Crow was missing part of his netting, and Gypsy…

There were a few files that Cambot saved that he never watched. Losing Gypsy hurt like losing Joel before her, and losing Mike before him. Their last moments were forever stored in Cambot’s memory, never to be overwritten, but he’d never played them back. 

“This is it,” Tom Servo said. Cambot and Crow stopped. The latitude and longitude were correct; they were home. Crow set Tom down, and for one moment, they all sat together in silence.

They were a family again, here together. Cambot stored this one last memory, tagging it with FAMILY. FAMILY held some of his most precious memories: the first time he was turned on and Joel smiled at him with his proud, sleepy smile; the first time that Cambot and his siblings were all allowed into the theater with Joel; the first time they met Mike; getting back down to Earth and finding Joel again; finally cementing their mismatched family as a _real_ family. These were memories Cambot treasured more than anything. 

Tom and Crow were designed to keep Joel company on the Satellite, but Cambot had one function: to watch Joel and Tom and Crow watch other things. There was a never-ending list of things to see with his siblings causing chaos, and a constant stream of movies provided by the Mads. He’d seen many natural phenomena (and enough movies of questionable quality) to know what was coming next, but if he just closed his eye and didn’t watch it, then there would still be one thing out there in the universe for him to see. One more adventure he’d get to go on with Mike and Joel and Gypsy and Tom and Crow. Maybe he’d see them again like all the dogs that went to Heaven. Maybe it was just an endless black void awaiting him, like those years spent as pure energy at the end of the universe. 

But if these were to be his last moments, then Cambot knew what he wanted to think about. 

He pulled up the memory… 

_It was two months after they’d moved into the new house, and it was bedtime. Joel had added a bedtime story to their routine, and they were starting a new book today._

_The ‘bots all snuggled around Joel as he opened the book and started reading aloud._

_“The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real, by Margery Williams,” he said._

_“Toys already are real, though,” Tom chimed in._

_“Yeah, otherwise how else could we touch them?” Crow added._

_“Hush, boys,” Joel chastised. “Do you want a bedtime story or not?”_

_Tom and Crow settled back under the blankets, pressed into Joel’s side._

“‘ _There was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid…’_ ” 

Cambot fast-forwarded through the first part of the story until he reached the part he was looking for.

_“‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse,” Joel read. Cambot liked how Joel did the voices. “‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’_

_“‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit._

_“‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’_

_“‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’_

_“‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand,’” Joel read._

_By that time, Crow and Tom were both softly whirring in their sleep, and only Cambot was left awake. Joel gave them each a soft kiss, quietly slipping out of the bed. He carried Cambot up to the top bunk, placing him on the pillow._

_“Goodnight, Cambot,” Joel said with his sleepy smile. “I love you.”_

Cambot knew lots of things. He’d observed and recorded lots of things. He knew how Mike liked his coffee, after all these years, and he knew that Crow and Tom really loved each other no matter how much they said otherwise. He knew they all missed Gypsy desperately. 

Even though it had been centuries, _eons_ since Joel had first read them the story, Cambot finally understood what the Skin Horse was saying that becoming Real took a long, long time. Despite their missing parts, rusting casing, and jerky movements, Cambot knew they were Real. 

Joel and Mike had made them Real. 

… And Cambot hummed one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you liked it, please comment/kudos, or come find me as ladywaffles on tumblr!  
>   
> The selections from _The Velveteen Rabbit _came from Project Gutenberg, a free, online collection of classic works. Check it out if you have the time!__


End file.
